Page 22 of Scarlett and the Fake Boyfriend (Scarlett #2)

Friday

Jacob parked his truck outside my apartment building. We’d skipped the party and gone to that diner he’d taken me to on our first date.

First date. Back when he’d actually liked me. I shook the thought away. We’d had so much fun tonight. Milkshakes were so much better than warm beer. I was glad we’d skipped the party.

Jacob unbuckled his seatbelt.

“You don’t have to come up tonight for appearances,” I said as I pulled my feet off the dash. “I’m actually just meeting up with Sophie in the secret lair for a bit.” She’d texted saying she was leaving the party early and needed to talk to me.

He nodded. “Okay.”

I wanted to ask him to come up anyway. But I didn’t have a reason.

And maybe he had plans to meet up with some friends or something.

Or Olivia. God, stop thinking about Olivia.

I slid my feet back into my shoes. “I’ll see you on Monday.

Or whenever you want to practice again.” I tried to hide my cringe. I hated how desperate I sounded.

“Goodnight, Scarlett.”

For a second I thought his eyes fell to my lips .

But I was pretty sure I’d imagined it. Because he didn’t lean forward to kiss me. Since there was no reason to. No one was watching us right now.

I just nodded and climbed out of the truck. But before I closed the door I turned around. “Thank you for tonight, Jacob. I had a lot of fun.”

He smiled. “You can sneeze on me anytime you want.”

I scoffed at him. “I did not sneeze on you. You’re remembering it wrong.”

He just laughed and turned his truck back on.

“Night,” I said and slammed the door closed.

I walked to the front of my building. It was strange.

When I’d been on my knees, I’d felt so..

.desired. Like Jacob really wanted it to be me in front of him.

And then him wanting to skip the party to go out for dinner instead had been exactly what I wanted.

But as I turned to watch his truck drive away, all I felt was...alone. The doorman opened the door for me.

“Thank you,” I said and stepped inside. I’d been worried about the lines blurring between friendship and an actual relationship. And I had every right to worry. Because I think they were starting to blur for me. And not for him.

I felt tears welling in the corners of my eyes. The last time I’d felt this stupid was when I thought Axel would notice my new look at the beginning of the year. And instead I’d had to watch in horror as Gigi planted a kiss on his lips on the first day of school.

It felt like someone was squeezing my heart. And even though I was wearing Jacob’s varsity jacket, I felt a chill in my bones .

I hit the button for my downstairs neighbor’s floor. My stupid heart. Jacob and I had agreed to a fake relationship. Why was my heart not following the rules?

My phone buzzed as the elevator doors parted. I pulled out my phone and stared down a text from my kiss thief as I stepped onto the elevator.

“You weren’t at the party tonight. Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” I texted back. But I wasn’t fine.

And I wasn’t in the mood for mind games right now.

I felt my lower lip trembling. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall.

I was such an idiot. I’d messed up another first. I’d given my first blowjob to a boy who’d never like me back. What was wrong with me?

My phone buzzed again. I stared down at the kiss thief’s next text.

“I missed you.”

I really wasn’t in the mood for this. But his text eased the ache in my chest just a bit. “You mean you missed watching me from a distance?”

“I want to do more than watch you from a distance.”

I bit the inside of my lip as I stared at his words. I loved Axel. And he didn’t care. I think I was starting to fall for Jacob. But it was all pretend.

The kiss thief though? He liked me. Just because I didn’t know who it was didn’t mean it wasn’t real. “What did you mean by stealing third base?” I texted.

“Were you with your boyfriend tonight?”

No, not really. Jacob wasn’t my boyfriend. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Answer mine first. And then I’ll answer yours.”

I sighed. “Yes, I was with my boyfriend.” I held my breath as I waited for him to respond to my question about third base. But he was suddenly taking longer.

The elevator dinged and the doors parted. And then my phone buzzed.

“Thinking about touching you has been driving me insane.”

So Jacob was right. The kiss thief wanted to do things to me .

The doors started to close and I realized I hadn’t stepped out. Crap. I put my hand against the door just in time so it wouldn’t close and hurried out.

And then I stood in the empty hallway staring at my kiss thief’s words.

I remembered the feeling of Jacob kissing me between my thighs.

How badly my body wanted him to keep going.

I wasn’t bold enough to ask him. But it was a lot easier to be bold when I wasn’t staring someone in the face. “Keep going,” I texted.

“I want to feel how wet I make you.”

Jesus. “Keep going.”

“I want to know you’re thinking about me even when your with your boyfriend.”

I swallowed hard.

“And I want to feel you come against my fingers while you scream my name.”

All I could feel was the ache between my thighs. “But I don’t know your name.”

“I’m your kiss thief. Just tell me yes.”

“Tell you yes for what?”

“I want to steal third base at homecoming before I lose my mind.”

I stared at his words. He wanted to touch me? At homecoming? My heart started racing. It had felt so good when Jacob pressed his lips against my leggings. I’d wanted more. So much more. My phone buzzed again.

“But you have to tell me yes.”

The elevator doors dinged behind me. Shit. I quickly exed out of the text thread as Sophie walked out of the elevator.

She was a little wobbly on her feet. “Scar! You missed out on an amazing party!” She threw her arms around me.

“You’re drunk.” I caught her weight and laughed.

“You’re drunk.”

“Definitely not.” I unlocked the door and helped her inside.

“I came up with an amazing plan,” she said as we walked through the hallway.

“Does your plan involve lying to me and pretending you told Jacob I wanted to blow him?”

She giggled. “No. Wait.” And then she giggled some more. “Yes. I did do that. Wait! Did it work?!”

“Yes.”

She suddenly seemed much more sober. “Tell me everything!”

“You are such a jerk.”

“Then why are you smiling?”

I shook my head.

“Come on, I knew you weren’t going to ask him yourself unless I gave you a push. Tell me everything. I’ve always wanted to know what our male besties were packing. How big are we talking here for Jacob?”

“Huge.”

“I love that for you.”

I laughed. “And I was great at it. He said I was amazing. That’s a direct quote.”

She high-fived me. “Took it like a champ. So you didn’t do anything weird?”

“Nope.”

“Why did your voice get weirdly high-pitched there?”

“Did it?” I knew my voice kept going up octaves.

“Scarlett, what did you do to Jacob’s cock?”

“Nothing!”

“Oh, you definitely did something. Spill it.”

“I didn’t do anything to his member. I just...sneezed after.”

“What?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I had an itch in my nose and Mr. Nigel walked in interrupting us. And I sneezed. It was so painful.”

Sophie’s eyes grew rounder with every word. “Wait, Mr. Nigel was there?”

“Not during. He walked in right after and I had a mouthful of...stop looking at me like that.”

Sophie burst out laughing.

“Stop it! It hurt!”

“I bet it did,” she said through her laughter. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“But the actual doing of it was good. Jacob said so. Stop it.”

“Sorry,” she said as she tried to regain her self-control. “I’m stopping.” But then she giggled again.

“You need some water.” I opened up the door to our lair and my feet froze.

“What the hell is that?” Sophie asked and pointed at the framed portrait that I was staring at in shock too .

There was a HUGE tasteful nude of RJ on the wall. He way lying down, propped up on one elbow, with a red satin sheet covering his manhood.

“Ew,” Sophie said.

“Ew,” I agreed. “Why would RJ put this in here? No one wants to see that.”

Sophie walked closer to the portrait.

“Don’t get any closer,” I said and made a grossed out face.

But she peered in real close.

“Are you looking at the size of your brother’s ding-a-ling right now?”

She shuddered. “No, and don’t call a penis that. We’re adults. I was looking at this.” She pointed to the signature at the bottom. “It says Axel Stevens.”

“What?”

“Axel painted this.”

“Wait.” I stared at the picture and burst out laughing. “He said he went to that painting class and that his painting was down here. I thought he was joking.”

“That class with Gemma? My brother was home that night.”

I laughed. “He clearly made it up. But he took lengths .”

“Gross pun, Scar. Can we please take this down?”

“Not until RJ sees it. I want to see his reaction.”

Sophie shuddered and turned around. “Fine, but I’m not facing it.”

I grabbed her a water from the mini-fridge and handed it to her. “You mentioned a new plan?”

“Yes. I scoured the locker room footage all week but couldn’t find a single clue.

So here’s our new plan. You need to kiss your kiss thief again and actually pay attention to every detail.

And then you’re going to dance with all five suspects at homecoming and compare them to the kiss thief.

We’re talking exact height.” She put her hands on my shoulders.

“Where his waist is.” She put her hands on my waist. “And you better freaking smell his cologne this time, Scar.”

“I can do that.” But it would probably be in reverse order. Because my kiss thief wanted to kiss me again at homecoming. Not before. But I didn’t say any of that out loud. His last text was burning a hole in my pocket.

“And Axel. And Mr. Halifax.” She did her best to keep an even face, but I knew how much that stung.

“I’m not dancing with Mr. Halifax at homecoming.”